The Strays

Thankfully , this is a situation we have only encountered a couple of times in over a decade of bookings. However, of course, sometimes people do get unwell. That is why, when it comes to booking entertainment, it is a safer option to book an act through an agency like ELM Agency, because should anything like this happen, we have a whole host of acts that we can call upon. We have numerous singers, musicians and bands at our finger tips and if there is any reason why an artist can’t make it to your event, we would be straight on the phone to all of our acts making sure someone could step in for your event. (We would of course check this with you first). And, here’s a secret of our trade – musicians are made of steel. It takes a lot to bring down our team, we’re very hard workers and we don’t give up without a fight!

All of our bands and musical acts will bring everything they need for their performance. In some cases, we may need to use an AV team to supply a bigger or different set up (if you have a particularly large event) and if this is the case, we will discuss that with you and give you some options. Similarly, for our corporate clients, you may have booked a venue which has an AV team as part of the package, and in those instances our bands will be happy to liaise with those teams making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

When we receive your enquiry, Emily will contact you to find out a little more about your event. Once we have all of the event details, we will contact the acts who fit your brief, to find out who is available. We will then send you a selection of options and from there, hopefully, we can work out who might be the best fit for you! Once we have ironed out the finer event details, we shall send you a digital contract which protects both you as the client and the artist, and an invoice for a deposit. Generally, if your event is a little while away, then we ask for 50% to secure the booking and the balance to be paid one month before your event. Once it’s all booked in, you can sit back, relax and get planning the other parts of your event. We will then contact you about one month before to discuss the final details, recap everything we need to know and collect the balance payment. We will usually also be in touch with your venue to make sure we have got all of the info we need there too and to give them important documents like PLI and PAT certificates.

All of our acts differ slightly but in general, most of our musical acts tend to be booked for 2 x 45 minute sets for daytime events and up to 2 hours of live music for evenings. These sets can of course be split however you wish. We can also help to guide you on what may work best. A few of our bands such as The Martinis play a bit more than this. The Martinis play 2 x 70 minute sets as standard and for most of the bands, you can pay a bit extra if you would like a longer performance.  In between their sets, almost all of our bands will be happy to pop on a party playlist, meaning there is no need for you to hire a DJ, although if you would like a DJ – we can help you with that too! If you want to create your own party playlist, then you can give the band your playlist in advance.

Fabulous question! Booking a band can be really overwhelming if you’re not sure where to look. Luckily for you, this is something we can help with, as we have for hundreds of previous clients.

First of all, you should decide which genre of music you would like the band to play OR perhaps you would prefer a band who perform a mixture of music, suitable for all ages.  For example, if you love soul music, we would strongly suggest checking out House of Soul. If you’re looking for a band who cover a very wide range  of music, spanning the 50’s to the 00’s then you may like to take a look at The Good Time Guys.